Sunday in Kumily.

We were both tired so thought a good sleep was on the cards  but between a group of Lions Club members having a bit of fun at their guest house and the temples belting out chants and music from the early hours not much sleep was had . Anyway that didn't deter us from an early start and a good breakfast.

Our dining room ! We had fried egg , toast pineapple jam and a good strong cup of coffee before heading off to 

Entry fee £1 

It was a fascinating tour , so here is my own tour for you to see.

Our guide who really knew his stuff.

Peppercorns. They grow on a vine a wrap themselves round any tree but in this case it's palm trees.

Cinnamon bark.

Figs .

Ah and these at the base of the leaf by the stalk are cloves .

Cocoa pods and below the cocoa flower which looks so delicate

Can't remember the name but it's so colourful.

And this is a mixed spice tree. Our guide tore a leaf off and it had such an aromatic smell.

Nothing exciting here , just the view .

This rather fuzzy shot is natural sweetener . He gave us a leaf to eat and it tasted just like sweetex.

And this is / was a flying ant nest .

Another pretty flower.

I can't find my picture of cardamom , but it grows close to the ground and they look like green berries.

For every forty tons of cardamom seeds picked the actual weight at the end of the drying process is only 2 tons.which is why it is so expensive to buy.

The seeds are payed out on racks on the right here and a fire is lit underneath.

That's the fire pit with a hole going up to the drying racks. The seeds are left to dry for days.

We spent a good hour and a half wandering , tasting leaves and smelling smells before going to the wee shop and coming away with yet more presents for home . My case is going to be very heavy !

Courtesy of Cheryl's son we got back to the guest house, packed our bags and were wondering if we could face wandering around with them on our backs when Cheryl asked her son if a friend in a shop would keep them while we wandered. That was a huge relief as it was pretty hot.

The shops up here are lovely , all the young girls reading this would have spent a fortune ( in Indian terms anyway). They would also find the young men very good looking too . There are some very good looking people in this area.

A landmark that you wouldn't forget.it certainly helped me keep my bearings.

There was obviously some celebration going on in this church , and the music was boring out just for a change.

Bags collected, 

water and supplies bought we headed to the bus and to do that you leave Kerela and go through the barrier to Tamil Nadu.

The bus left within 5 mins which was great and I did the usual asking the driver to be safe . I was met once again with vigorous head shaking and laughing.

Well can I tell you that 5 mins. Into the journey we were certainly not laughing . 

He was a complete idiot and several times even had the Indians wincing. 

20 miles an hour , that was a joke , he came careering round crazy bends. Tjere is a huge drop over that barrier. I tried to distract myself with the baby beside me but it was no good . 

We got to the straight road and still no improvement. After many requests to slow up, and then 

We hit this car , fortunately it was only a prang but there was a huge argument.

That's our driver standing in the brown uniform on the right .

I think the Lorry driver (Blue long skirt ) started to pull out , the white car put on the brakes and because our big bus was too close and too fast we crunched right into him.

The bus driver said not a word and got no blame whatsoever. We moved off leaving the other parties to battle it out .

This of course meant that the driver was behind schedule so he went even faster and had several near misses. So we decided to get off at the next big station which very fortunately for us was only 15 mins away.

The buses are so regular that we hopped off the one and onto the next. Our seats were further back the bus this time so we couldn't see what was going on up front but we were rumbled about a fair bit .

This driver was better but really I will be happy to never see the inside of one of those buses ever again.We both felt so relieved to got back In one piece .

On the subject of the roads , actually our bump and a motor cycle accident in The city are the only accidents I have seen in the 8 weeks which seems unbelievable .

So that ends my last weekend trip away before the 8 th. March when Phil arrives  but I am sure there will be lots more to write about before then.